My cousin, Jim Smith, and I try to get together a couple of times each season for a quail hunt. He lives in Oklahoma so we try to meet in Kansas. It’s about the same distance for each of us. The drought has hurt some areas of Kansas but there are some pockets that have a few quail.
Abby on the far side with Bay Lee and Josie.
Another single with Boss in the back ground.
Jim taking a picture of Dotty.
As we got dogs ready with their e-collars and GPS collars there were dogs pointing. Jim had his 3, Dotty, Josie and Bay Lee and I had 4, Boss, Abby, Bodie and Mann. I had put the collars on Mann first and as we stepped away from the truck he was on point 375 yards away. About that time Dottie pointed near the trucks. Several of the dogs were close enough to honor.
We had parked by a tree line and Dottie was inside the clump of trees on point. When we got close a quail flushed flying through the trees without giving us a shot.
We started toward Mann, who was still on point. Mann was in some real tall grass and as we got closer he was moving. It had taken us too long to get there, maybe. As we went on down the CRP we saw some singles flushing ahead of us. In just a few minutes we had moved 2 coveys and hadn’t got a shot.
We turned down a hedge row along a harvested soybean field. One of our dogs pointed inside the hedge row and we went inside. The bird flushed well ahead of us and with all of the trees there was no chance for a shot. Then 2 got up well ahead of us and flew down the edge. I shot once but thought I had missed.
We started on down the hedge row and the GPS showed Bay Lee on point just behind us. When we got close Abby and Bodie were honoring. We walked in and a quail popped up about the top of the weeds and dropped back down. I must have hit the bird I had shot at but we spent 15 minutes, at least, trying to find that bird but never did.
Near the end of the hedge row Abby came into the harvested soybean field and pointed. She was looking way out at some grass that was growing along the edge of the field. Several of the dogs honored. When I got close Abby went toward the tall grass and all of the backing dogs moved up. They all acted like something would flush at any moment, but nothing got up.
We continued along another edge and Dottie pointed about 300 yards ahead of us where a fence row intersected the hedge row we were on. We were still about a hundred yards from her when about 5 quail flew over us. We weren’t sure what happened. We went on to the fence row and turned down it.
Abby honoring.
About 300 yards down the fence row Dottie was on point again. We were close when we saw this covey flush from the other side of the fence row and fly back the way we had come. We went on the way we had started.
Farther down there was a grassy area between the soybean field we had been following and a harvested corn field. Both of the row crop fields were without any weeds or even grass. We let the dogs check all of the grass between fields then started around the corn field. Jim and I had separated by a hundred yards or so. I saw a single quail flush from the corn field but only fly about 20 yards and go back down. Before I could say anything a covey flushed from the corn field.
I got Jim’s attention and went to where I had seen them land. There was a deep ditch with some brush along it. We got the dogs in to search for the quail. The dogs found nothing. They worked both sides of the ditch and even down in the ditch and never even got birdy. I know I saw them but they beat us some way.
Boss honoring.
We crossed the ditch and went around another field. Then back along another to the trucks. We loaded our dogs and ate our lunch on the way to next farm.
The neat part of hunting this time of year all of the crops or nearly all have been harvested. The next farm had harvested the soybeans but there were a lot of grassy draws and fence rows. We started down a hedge row and Dottie went on point in the next field over. We went to her. When we went in front of her she was surprised that no birds flushed. All of the dogs came in front and started trailing. They had been there.
After the dogs checked the area we followed the grassy area between the fields. Jim’s dog Josie was on point not far away. The birds flushed before we got within shooting distance. We started in the direction the birds had gone but Dottie pointed from the direction we were originally headed. We went toward her.
Dottie on point.
When we got there Abby and Bay Lee were honoring. Abby was pretty close and when we went in front Dottie started moving. She went one way and Abby went another. Abby went the right way and pointed. The other dogs honored. Jim told me to go ahead. I walked in front and 4 or 5 quail flushed flying low. I got on one and just as I pulled the trigger the gun barrel hit a small tree. Of course, it was a miss. As we moved down this grassy strip we had several points but the birds had run off.
To hunt this part of Kansas I have to go all the way across the whole Kansas City metro area. At 70 miles per hour and no problems it takes 45 minutes. During rush hour there is no telling how long it will take. I left about 2:00 pm to keep from hitting the rush hour. We had moved 7 or 8 coveys and not killed a bird. Actually didn’t get that many shots. I think I shot twice and Jim not at all.
Bay Lee nearest and Abby, honoring.
But it was really good for the dogs. With 7 dogs running, probably, some of the birds were flushed by dogs not honoring or just not seeing the pointing dog. It was good for Jim and me too. If we had of been hungry we would have used the gas money to buy groceries. As I’ve said before, “Quail are too valuable to shoot.” We need wild birds to work our dogs.